Jump Ambush, Space Shattering

[ Ding! ]

[Detected that the host had broken through the world with martial arts, escaped the gravitational constraints of a low-level martial arts plane, and officially stepped into the sea of stars!]

[Main Quest: Investigate the truth behind Jiang Xiaotian's disappearance.]

[Quest Location: New Star.]

Before Jiang Yuan could process the system's utterly flawed explanation in his mind, the interstellar ferry Voyager beneath him suddenly began to shake violently.

This tremor was a hundred times stronger than the ambush they had encountered in orbit earlier. The entire ship's internal structure groaned under the strain, like a tin can clutched in a giant's hand.

"Fuck! What the hell is happening? Again?"

Guo Hongtao had barely jumped out of his seat when the violent jolting hurled him hard against the cabin wall opposite him with a dull thud.

"Warning! Warning! Unknown spatial turbulence encountered. Ship spatial coordinate lock lost! Attempting recalibration..."

The cold mechanical voice echoed over the broadcast, but before it could finish, it was drowned out by an even more horrifying sound of tearing metal.

Screech—

In the passenger cabin along the side hull not far from Jiang Yuan and the others, the thick shell made of special alloy was ripped open from the outside by an invisible blade as though it were paper, leaving behind a terrifying gash more than ten meters long!

"Ah—!"

Several students closest to the breach could not even finish screaming before their bodies were instantly sliced into countless pieces by the rampaging energy blades. Blood and severed limbs were sucked out of the cabin by the immense force, vanishing into the darkness.

The panic of depressurization spread like a plague.

"No! I don't want to die! I just got into New Star Martial University!"

"Help! Somebody save me!"

Amid the chaos, several female students who knew there was no hope of survival completely broke down. Their hair was disheveled and they looked crazed as they tore off their clothes and threw themselves at the nearest male students.

"We're going to die anyway! I don't want to be a virgin ghost! Come on!"

"Hurry! Give it to me! I want it now!"

The madness before the end had utterly shattered what little reason remained. Humanity's ugliness and primal desires were laid bare before death.

Guo Hongtao stared blankly at this absurd yet tragic scene, muttering instinctively.

"Th... these people have gone insane..."

Bang!

Another violent jolt shook the cabin, and the safety buckle securing Guo Hongtao to his seat snapped on the spot under the tremendous impact!

"Fuck!"

Guo Hongtao only had time to cry out before the terrifying suction yanked his body off the floor and flung him toward the spatial breach not far away.

At that critical moment, a firm, powerful arm reached out from beside him, wrapped around his waist, and pressed him tightly against its owner's chest.

It was Jiang Yuan.

"Y-Yuan!"

Still trembling with fright, Guo Hongtao looked up and saw Jiang Yuan's calm, unchanging face.

Jiang Yuan said nothing. He merely shielded Guo Hongtao behind him and stood like an immovable mountain, facing the deadly breach with his back.

The Baxia · Stone-Metal Body within him was pushed to its limit, and a solid dark-golden sheen spread across the surface of his skin.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—

Countless tiny spatial energy blades slashed across Jiang Yuan's back, producing a piercing sound like metal being cut and sending up a spray of fine sparks. Yet they could not even scratch his skin!

At the Great Completion Realm, the defensive power of the Metal-Stone Body had already far surpassed this world's understanding of martial arts!

Sheltering behind Jiang Yuan, Guo Hongtao felt the security radiating from that broad back, and the panic in his heart miraculously subsided.

He even had the leisure to think that Yuan's body was sturdier than the ship's hull!

In the main control room, the captain looked at the rapidly expanding red warning zone on the screen representing the side-hull passenger cabin. A trace of resolve flashed across his face as he grabbed the communicator and gave the most ruthless order.

"Main control AI, execute Emergency Plan Three immediately."

"To preserve the ship's primary structure and the safety of more than ninety-five percent of the passengers, forcibly detach the damaged side-hull section at once!"

"Order confirmed. Emergency Plan Three activated. Detachment procedure countdown..."

"Ten, nine, eight..."

The cold countdown over the broadcast became the death knell for every survivor in this hell.

"No! Don't! Don't abandon us!"

"Captain! Fuck your mother! You'll die a miserable death!"

Desperate curses and cries rang out in unison, but they could change nothing.

"Yuan!"

Guo Hongtao heard the death sentence pronounced over the broadcast as well, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

Jiang Yuan's expression also grew grave. He could withstand spatial cutting with his flesh, but he had no confidence that he could keep Guo Hongtao alive in the boundless universe after they were separated from the ship.

"Three... two... one!"

"Detach!"

Rumble—

With a deafening boom, the entire section containing Jiang Yuan was forcibly separated from the ship's main body.

The immense inertia combined with the terrifying suction from the breach, mercilessly dragging the massive steel wreckage, Jiang Yuan, Guo Hongtao, and all the survivors within into that bottomless spatial rift.

Jiang Yuan held the unconscious Guo Hongtao tightly, allowing spatial turbulence ten times more violent than before to batter his body relentlessly.

Even the Metal-Stone Body at Great Completion Realm began to feel immense pressure in this environment. Its dark-golden radiance flickered uncertainly, and shallow white marks had already appeared across his back.

His Nine Yang Inner Force was being depleted at an astonishing rate.

Just as he felt he could no longer hold on, the wooden box he had been carrying on his back suddenly gave off a faint tremor.

Hum—

The rust-covered Thunderfire Broken Sword flew out of its sheath on its own and hovered before Jiang Yuan and Guo Hongtao.

The dark-red flame patterns spreading across the blade like blood vessels suddenly lit up. All the beast essence blood it had absorbed before, including the three vials of second-rank Crimson-Scaled Python heart's blood, was fully activated at that moment!

A vast and pure energy burst forth from the sword, instantly forming a pale-golden sword aura barrier that securely enveloped the two men and the sword.

The once-violent spatial turbulence, powerful enough to tear steel apart, melted away soundlessly when it struck that thin layer of sword aura, like spring snow beneath the blazing sun.

The crisis was temporarily resolved.

As though it possessed a spirit of its own, the Thunderfire Broken Sword carried this small sword aura barrier, the unconscious pair, and the twisted piece of shipwreckage, slowly drifting deeper into the spatial rift toward that utterly unknown darkness.